Providing a refractive index change in an ion diffused material
AssigneeJDS Fitel Inc.
InventorsMark Farries, Barrie Keyworth, Jan Ingenhoff, Norbert Fabricius
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Abstract
A method of forming a grating in waveguide uses an ion exchange process to provide a waveguide region within and clad by a surrounding substrate and through an ion exchange process diffusing into the substrate an ion, such as such as Ag+, that is photosensitive and that provides a refractive index difference from adjacent non-diffused regions of the substrate. After the diffusion process, the step of exposing at least some of the waveguide region to light having a suitable intensity and duration to provide a permanent index change within regions of the waveguide region to form a grating is performed.
Claims11
A method of forming a grating in a waveguide, comprising the steps of:
- providing a waveguide region within and entirely clad by a surrounding substrate through an ion exchange process by diffusing into the substrate an ion that provides a refractive index different from a adjacent non-diffused regions of the substrate;
- exposing at least some of the waveguide region to light having a suitable wavelength, intensity and duration to provide a permanent index change within regions of the waveguide region to form a grating.
A method of forming a grating in a waveguide, comprising the steps of:
- providing an ion diffused waveguide region within a substrate;
- exposing the ion diffused waveguide region to light by interfering two beams within the ion diffused waveguide region.
A method of producing a refractive index change in a light transmissive substrate comprising the steps of:
- performing an ion exchange process on the light transmissive substrate to form a waveguide therein that is photosensitive to light having a suitable wavelength, intensity and duration;
- and,
- exposing a portion of the waveguide to light having the suitable wavelength, intensity and duration to provide a permanent index change within the exposed portion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.